Making ethnic studies illegal in Ohio: Even watered down, SB 83 requires teaching racism

[Nevilledog]

https://ohiocapitaljournal.com/2023/05/19/making-ethnic-studies-illegal-in-ohio-even-watered-down-sb-83-requires-teaching-racism/

In 2006, I was hired by the state of Ohio to teach ethnic studies. Among the core concepts of this field that I was expected to impart to my students were the ideas that apparent human differences are more historical and cultural than natural, that what we call “race” is our own invention, and a key story of the U.S.A. is that people of color have had to struggle for the equal rights bestowed upon most white people at the time of the nation’s birth. When SB 83 passes it will be illegal for me to continue to do so.

In the face of a historic outpouring of protest against his so-called, “Ohio Higher Education Enhancement Act,” state Sen. Jerry Cirino amended his bill and softened several of its restrictions on teaching. Nevertheless, what remains still creates a set of conflicting mandates and restrictions that place those, like myself, whose job it is to teach ethnic studies, in a legal bind. First, much of the core of ethnic studies content remains classified as a “controversial belief or policy,” specifically, “diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, immigration policy.” Such controversial concepts are required under this bill to be treated differently than other subjects.

Under even the watered down version of SB 83, when teaching about these “controversial beliefs” faculty are specifically ordered to “encourage students to reach their own conclusions about” them and are prohibited from seeking to “inculcate any social [or] political” view about them. Additionally, instructors are required to present “multiple, divergent, and varied perspectives” on these and other controversial topics.

I’ve long believed that good teaching is based on encouraging independent and critical thinking and have read enough history to understand that what appears as commonsensical and indisputably true today may turn out to be more complicated at some future time. But within ethnic studies what SB 83 terms a controversial concept are actually settled, core elements of the field.

*snip*

[Fullduplexxx]

1. Ordering them to teach what racist want you to believe rather than truth